Week 9, Sign Inventory

"The Drowned Children" by Louise Gluck

1. The title of the poem controls the meaning. From her other poems, titling is very specific and important.

2. The speaker is addressing a general "you".

3. The word natural in the second line suggests multiple meanings: natural as in nature of the pond, natural as in how is should be.

4. The use of "they" makes the drowned children generalized and less personal.

5. The personification of the pond "lifting" and "dark arms" gives nature more agency than the children.

6. The second and third stanzas begin with conjunctions: "and" and "but."

7. The list of household items at the end of stanza two that ends in "their bodies" aligns the children with just things laying around the house.

8. The italics at the end are interesting. Could it be the voice of the drowned children?

9. The idea of naming in the third stanza seems contradictory to the anonymity of the children so far in the poem.

10. The idea in the second stanza that death comes to people differently is an interesting characterization of death.